Ezekiel 25King James Version
Short burdens on Ammon, Moab, Edom, and the Philistines, the neighbors who mocked at Jerusalem's fall. Because ye have rejoiced, saith the Lord, therefore behold I will stretch out mine hand.
Oracles against four nations: Ammon gloated over Israel's fall and will be given to eastern peoples; Moab treated Judah as just another nation and will have its border towns stripped away; Edom took revenge on Israel and will be made desolate; the Philistines enacted old vengeance with contempt and will be destroyed. Each oracle ends with 'they shall know that I am the LORD.'
Nations that gloat over and exploit Israel's suffering do not stand outside God's moral order: they face their own accounting for how they treated a people in distress.
15: "Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because the Philistines have dealt by revenge, and have taken vengeance with a despiteful heart, to destroy it for the old hatred." Old grievances nursed into new violence still have consequences.
Around 587 to 586 BC, after Jerusalem has fallen or is falling. Ammon sat on Israel's eastern border and taunted as the temple burned. Edom is a particularly sharp wound: a brother nation (descended from Esau) that participated in the destruction. Obadiah addresses this as well. The betrayal of family is its own category of wrong.
Ammon, Moab, Edom, and Philistia each condemned in sequence; the LORD who speaks through Ezekiel; the peoples of the east and the servants of God who execute judgment.
This chapter opens Ezekiel's block of oracles against foreign nations (chapters 25 to 32), a genre common to the major prophets (see Isaiah 13 to 23, Jeremiah 46 to 51). Their inclusion after Jerusalem's fall demonstrates that God's sovereignty extends beyond Israel. The nations are not innocent bystanders: they are moral agents who will answer for their choices.
For when you have watched those who should have helped instead pile on when you were down. The chapter speaks directly to that: the gloating is seen, the opportunistic cruelty is noticed, and it is not the last word.
1The word of the LORD came again unto me, saying,
2Son of man, set thy face against the Ammonites, and prophesy against them;
3And say unto the Ammonites, Hear the word of the Lord GOD; Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because thou saidst, Aha, against my sanctuary, when it was profaned; and against the land of Israel, when it was desolate; and against the house of Judah, when they went into captivity;
4Behold, therefore I will deliver thee to the men of the east for a possession, and they shall set their palaces in thee, and make their dwellings in thee: they shall eat thy fruit, and they shall drink thy milk.
5And I will make Rabbah a stable for camels, and the Ammonites a couchingplace for flocks: and ye shall know that I am the LORD.
6For thus saith the Lord GOD; Because thou hast clapped thine hands, and stamped with the feet, and rejoiced in heart with all thy despite against the land of Israel;
7Behold, therefore I will stretch out mine hand upon thee, and will deliver thee for a spoil to the heathen; and I will cut thee off from the people, and I will cause thee to perish out of the countries: I will destroy thee; and thou shalt know that I am the LORD.
8Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because that Moab and Seir do say, Behold, the house of Judah is like unto all the heathen;
9Therefore, behold, I will open the side of Moab from the cities, from his cities which are on his frontiers, the glory of the country, Bethjeshimoth, Baalmeon, and Kiriathaim,
10Unto the men of the east with the Ammonites, and will give them in possession, that the Ammonites may not be remembered among the nations.
11And I will execute judgments upon Moab; and they shall know that I am the LORD.
12Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because that Edom hath dealt against the house of Judah by taking vengeance, and hath greatly offended, and revenged himself upon them;
13Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; I will also stretch out mine hand upon Edom, and will cut off man and beast from it; and I will make it desolate from Teman; and they of Dedan shall fall by the sword.
14And I will lay my vengeance upon Edom by the hand of my people Israel: and they shall do in Edom according to mine anger and according to my fury; and they shall know my vengeance, saith the Lord GOD.
15Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because the Philistines have dealt by revenge, and have taken vengeance with a despiteful heart, to destroy it for the old hatred;
16Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will stretch out mine hand upon the Philistines, and I will cut off the Cherethims, and destroy the remnant of the sea coast.
17And I will execute great vengeance upon them with furious rebukes; and they shall know that I am the LORD, when I shall lay my vengeance upon them.